Bloomberg Quotes Clete Willems on US-EU Aircraft Subsidies Agreement

Bloomberg has quoted Akin Gump public law and policy partner Clete Willems in the article “U.S.-EU Deal Leaves Doubts Aircraft Case Will Be Resolved,” which reports on an agreement between the United States and European Union over aircraft subsidies. The deal, according to the article, suspends tariffs for five years, yet allows for either side to reimpose duties if the other party does not live up to the deal’s principles.

The article cites U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai as saying the agreement is a way to ensure compliance and to show how serious the Biden-Harris administration is about enforcing the terms of it.

But Willems, a former senior trade advisor in the Trump administration, said the outcome leaves too many question marks and could signal a broader U.S. approach on EU trade barriers.

“I applaud the administration for trying to resolve disputes with the EU but the decision to abandon leverage without getting hard commitments in return is perplexing,” said Willems. “They should keep working to settle the WTO disputes once and for all, and remove the tariff cloud over transatlantic trade.”

The World Trade Organization, the article notes, had previously permitted Washington to impose $7.5 billion in retaliatory tariffs annually on European imports—nearly double the $4 billion award last October that the WTO authorized Brussels to target in American goods.